


Public Token

by jenna_thorn



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: M/M, canon-typical nudity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-12 05:40:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5654479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenna_thorn/pseuds/jenna_thorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You cannot say such things.”</p><p>Bull pulled back. “Why not?”</p><p>“I …you …we … why not, indeed.” </p><p>“Yeah, why not?”</p><p>“You are being deliberately obtuse.”</p><p>“And you think you’re in Tevinter.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Public Token

Bull grabbed both Dorian’s hands and pulled them down; he didn’t miss Dorian’s sudden indrawn breath, but tucked it away for later. He pressed Dorian’s palms to his own stomach, and couldn’t keep from smiling. Dorian’s hands were cool against his bare skin. 

“Lemme warm you up.” 

“You aren’t afraid I’ll chill you? Wicked necromancer after all.”

“First, I saw that fireball yesterday and second,” he dropped Dorian’s hands and grabbed his ass. “I can think of a whole lot of ways to get you hot, maybe sweaty, panting even.”

“You cannot say such things.”

Bull pulled back, “Why not?”

“I …you …we … why not, indeed.” 

“Yeah, why not?”

“You are being deliberately obtuse.”

“And you think you’re in Tevinter.”

That chilled the room, and Bull pretended he didn’t notice as he threw himself back onto the disarrayed bed linens and stretched his arms behind his head.  
Dorian stood, nude but holding one sock, his other hand on his hip. “Tevinter is warm; I am currently in a frozen wasteland.”

“You are currently in my quarters, too far away from my blankets, which will solve that problem. Also from me and the same. Which do you want?”

“You have met my needs wholly.” Dorian’s tone was snappish, but Bull preened anyway. “I suppose I’m failing to reciprocate.”

“Oh I wouldn’t say that, big guy. I’m good.”

“So you say, but…” Dorian twisted the sock in his hands, and Bull propped himself up on his arms. Dorian talked all the time. When he didn’t, _that_ was important. “I ….. I want _you_ to want something.”

“I want you.”

“But of course.” The smile he turned on Bull both lovely and practiced, a polite lie held in his even teeth, and Bull wanted to smear it away with his thumb, or maybe his mouth.

“I want you to kiss me,” Bull said.

Dorian raised his chin in offer, but Bull waited. After a pause, Dorian opened his eyes, moved closer, his lips a scant distance away. He frowned, just a bit, then shifted his weight to lean up to close the distance. Bull wrapped his arms around Dorian, one high, under his shoulders, the other low, his palm falling nicely under the curve of Dorian’s ass. 

“Oh come now, you’ve made no demands, not for secrecy, not for specific acts , not even for ...”

“Grab us a bit of water, would you, pretty?”

Dorian brought the glass and Bull drank half of it, then held the edge of the cup to Dorian’s lips and tipped it. Dorian swallowed obediently, then took the cup back to the table. Bull patted the bed and Dorian sat. He didn’t snuggle in, which is kind of what Bull had been hoping for, but he was still nude, and Bull would settle for that. He ran the edges of his fingers, careful of his nails, along the smooth skin of Dorian’s thigh.

“I do have a request, but I don’t think you’re going to go for it.”

“You think me so ungenerous.”

Bull ran his palm across Dorian’s bicep, across his back, curling his arm over Dorian’s shoulder as he considered his options. He could roll over and pull from this position, drag Dorian over him and around to the bed and cover him, press him into the linens and rub skin to skin. Or he could let go, let Dorian stand to pace, making circles in the room, spiraling ever closer to the door. “I think you aren’t used to kissing someone in the sunshine.”

Dorian blinked. “Public spaces? A bit daring, but not, actually, out of my experience.”

Bull chuckled. “That too, but no. I don’t want to be your dirty secret. I want to tell everyone in Skyhold, in the whole of Fereldan, hell, Orlais, too, that I get to do this.” He bent and twisted to rise enough to press a kiss into Dorian’s ribs, then trailed small light kisses to his hip. “We can hide in hallways, steal kisses in the dark, pass notes and meet at midnight.” Or when you’re drunk enough to pretend that no one sees you, he didn’t say, but thought. “I can do that. I’m good with that. I’m not making any conditions. We can keep on just the way we’ve been doing.”

“But it’s not what you want.”

“I..” Bull took a breath and tried again. “I want to stand on the highest tower I can find and tell the whole fucking world that you and me are us.”

Dorian’s next breath was almost a gasp, and the muscles in his back moved under Bull’s arm. Dorian let out that breath slowly, only a little jagged at the end. “I suspect the highest tower would be Evelyn’s balcony.”

Bull punctuated his words with kisses along Dorian’s thigh. “I can make a banner. String it up for everyone to see. Do it in pictures, so there’s no language barrier – maybe a peacock with bull’s horns.”

Dorian rolled his eyes. “Or simply dangle our smallclothes from the rail.”

“Hey, I was trying to be classy.”

“Classy? Claiming your territory?”

Bull flopped sideways, careful of his horns, to put the back of his head on Dorian’s knee. “Wrong direction. I want to show off where you’ve planted your flag. If you want to.” He didn’t really have Dorian pinned to the bed, just the one leg, and Dorian could brush him off easily enough. If he chose to. Bull bit his tongue, waiting for him to choose.

Dorian smoothed his hand over Bull’s nearest horn. “The tassam…”

“Tamassrans.” He should have known Dorian would pick up on that. Tevinter politics and Ben Hassrath training paralleled each other in too many ways.

“You and me, being us.”

“Too selfish for the Qun.” Bull wanted to roll his shoulders, move his neck, stretch out the stiffness he felt creeping up, but Dorian was still brushing his hand along one horn, not rubbing, not holding, just the barest edge of sensation. Bull wasn’t sure if more or less would be better. Maybe both. He realized Dorian still held the sock in his free hand. 

“And that’s what you want.” 

“One of them. Might be too much for you. Might be too much for me.” He rolled to sitting, then turned and threw his leg over Dorian’s lap, deliberately pinning him to the bed now. “See, you asked what I want; I want a lot of things. I want to blow you as the sun rises, I want to make you make the nug noise again, I –“

“I do not make a nug noise.”

“Oh, my pretty mage, you do.” Bull grinned and Dorian smiled back, still a little tentative around the edges. 

Dorian draped the sock over the tip of Bull’s horn and Bull shook his head to make it sway as it dangled. “There, now you carry my favor, as in a tournament.” 

“Jousting time!”

“Oh for…” Dorian sputtered as Bull leaned into him, driving him to the bed sideways. “Again?”

“And again and again and again. And later, again.” Bull leaned in for a kiss. 

“All right, yes, ” Dorian said against Bull’s lips and Bull opened his eyes. 

“To the again part?”

“That too. But… yes, to the again. And yes to … the other. No banners. No balconies.”

“Nah,” Bull whispered into Dorian’s neck, kissing behind his ear, “But I might say something to Evelyn, just so she’s not surprised when I bend you over the War Table.” He put his teeth to the skin of Dorian’s neck and sucked.

“Good, that’s good, yes.” Dorian arched into his arms and Bull put his mind to what he was doing.

Five days later, as they slipped and slid on the wet rocks of the Storm Coast, Bull let Evelyn know.

**Author's Note:**

>  _from party banter:_  
>  Iron Bull: So, Dorian, about last night…  
> Dorian: (sighs) Discretion isn’t your thing, is it?  
> Iron Bull: Three times! Also, do you want those silky underthings back, or did you leave those like a token?  
> Iron Bull: Or…wait, did you “forget” them so you’d have an excuse to come back? You sly dog!


End file.
